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Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien dies aged 96

post #1 of 6
6/5/09 at 6:24am
Thread Starter 



Quote:
HONG KONG – Veteran Hong Kong actor Shih Kien, who played Bruce Lee's archrival in the 1973 movie "Enter the Dragon," has died at age 96.

"With his death, Hong Kong has lost an outstanding performing arts talent," Acting Hong Kong Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Gregory So said in a statement.

Shih died Wednesday afternoon at a Hong Kong hospital with his children by his side, the Ming Pao Daily News reported Friday. The cause was kidney failure, the Apple Daily newspaper said.

Shih made his film debut in 1940 and went on to act in about 350 films, most notably playing villains in films about Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hong, according to Ming Pao.

He was best known to Western audiences for playing the evil martial arts expert Han in "Enter the Dragon." In the movie, Lee's character is hired by a foreign government to infiltrate Han's island and seeks to avenge his sister's death by Han's bodyguard.

Kien played one of my favourite movie villains in one of my all time favourite movies. I'll be watching Enter the Dragon for the umpteenth time this weekend in tribute.

RIP

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090605/...it_shih_kien_5
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post #2 of 6
6/5/09 at 8:24am

Re: Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien dies aged 96

Sad news for kung fu fans this week.

Shih was one of those guys who showed up in dozens of films and you sort of took him for granted. "The hero is only as good as the villlian he faces" is a rule of action films, which speaks volumes to how good this guy was as he was. Just as memorable as Bruce in that movie.
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post #3 of 6
6/5/09 at 9:25am

Re: Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien dies aged 96

"You have our gratitude"



RIP
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post #4 of 6
6/5/09 at 9:35am
Thread Starter 

Re: Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien dies aged 96

"The battle with the guards was magnificent. Your skill is extraordinary. And I was going to ask you to join us"

I was seeing how quickly I could connect Shih Kien to David Carradine - Kien was dubbed by Keye Luke in Enter the Dragon and Keye Luke played Master Po in Carradine's Kung Fu series. There you go.
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post #5 of 6
6/5/09 at 3:05pm

Re: Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien dies aged 96

The guy was nearly a hundred. Hell, if I get a run like that, I'll be THRILLED! The guy had a nice, long life - no sadness from me at all.
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post #6 of 6
6/14/09 at 8:23pm

Re: Enter the Dragon's Shih Kien dies aged 96

The death of Shih Kien meant different things to me.

Obviously, Mr. Shih is well-known in the Hong Kong movie industry for his portrayals of bad guy characters (he also has one of the most evil laughs in Hong Kong movies). However, I will choose to remember Mr. Shih for his later performances as kind, grandfatherly characters (to the likes of Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, Tong Leung, etc.) in various HK TV dramas and movies because those were the roles in which I remember him being great at. I read that, in real life, Mr. Shih was the complete opposite of his "bad guy" persona....he doesn't smoke, drink, or use profanity, and was married to the same woman for 60 years....and wanted to be in more non-martial arts productions. Like the one in "A Better Tomorrow III"....



RIP Mr. Shih
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